'"
"You honor me, great father," said the young man, his eyes staring with
terror, "but I beg you to excuse me for a little time."
"Ah, so you would leave me," said the sly emperor, in his mildest
tones. "A most inhospitable wretch, indeed."
The tall Jew was now pale with fright. His feeling showed in great
beads of perspiration. He dared not to stay; he dared not to go. He
was in a worse plight than Vergilius, now standing in the leopard's
cage.
"A most inhospitable prince," the bland emperor repeated, smiling with
amusement. "You are in a hurry?"
"I am ill."
The emperor stood smiling as Antipater glided away.
"Run, you knave!" said the former to himself, with a chuckle of
satisfaction. "Upon my soul! the Jew has already set his snare."
Then the gentle and cunning man, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus
Augustus, made his way to the entrance where lecticarii were waiting
with his litter.
"Can you hear the sound of running feet?" he inquired of the lady who
sat beside him as they went away.
"Yes. What means it?"
He turned with a smile and a movement of his hand.
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